The Real Deal New York

Developer puts 74 rent-stabilized Manhattan House pads on the block

O’Connor Capital Partners’ Bill O’Connor and Manhattan House at 200 East 66th Street

Two years after completing an arduous condo conversion of Manhattan House — the landmarked Upper East Side building that Grace Kelly, Jackie Robinson and jazz legend Benny Goodman once called home — the developers are shopping 74 unsold units for $1.125 million each.

O’Connor Capital Partners, which bought the 493-unit building in 2005, is looking to unload a mix of studios to three-bedroom units that are all occupied by rent-stabilized tenants.

At $83.3 million, the asking price works out to roughly half of the block’s vacant market value, an estimated $166.6 million, according to listing broker Mark Zborovsky. He said it’s the best block to hit the market in the last decade, thanks to the large number of units and the building’s pedigree.

Representatives for O’Connor did not immediately comment on the offering.

The firm, founded by the late Jeremiah O’Connor, paid $623 million for the property at the height of the market. It began the condo conversion in 2007 and completed it in 2015, despite pushback from litigious tenants and a messy split with O’Connor’s former partner on the project, N. Richard Kalikow. Located at 200 East 66th Street between Second and Third avenues, Manhattan House was originally built in 1952 by New York Life Insurance Co. The Skidmore, Owings & Merrill building was notoriously selective even as a rental.

Of the 74 units on the market, 42 have balconies and 10 feature wood-burning fireplaces, according to the listing. The monthly rental income is $191,329, an average of about $2,600 per apartment. Amenities include a roof deck and residents’ lounge, as well as a yoga studio and spa.

The building currently has 26 market-rate condos for sale, according to StreetEasy, ranging from an 877-square-foot one-bedroom asking $1.25 million to a five-bedroom penthouse, with 3,787 square feet, which is asking $8.25 million.

Last year, Goodman’s former apartment hit the market for $8.6 million. In February, media mogul Martha Debayle — who’s known as the Oprah of Mexico — paid $3.4 million for a three-bedroom condo at the building.